How to Approach Selling: Know Your (Changing) Markets

So, you’ve got a product and retail space. How do you sell it? Depending on what product you are selling, you need to know your target market. But are you sure you are hitting the right demographic? According to Forbes, the demos are changing (just like retail and everything else, it seems). For example, Forbes contributor Pamela N. Danziger writes, multigenerational households are on the rise (“there is an increase in ‘grandfamilies,’ with a grandparent as the household head. This makes for unpredictable buying patterns when people shop: for example, the 50-year-old woman buying baby diapers for her grandchild and adult diapers for her parent.”) and there are lots of young adults, but few young kids (“Millennials are putting a hold on childbearing, delaying the age of motherhood to 28, resulting in the lowest birth rate since 1987.”). These shifts are “shaping the destiny, the opportunities and the challenges for retailers. Retailers can’t escape them. They must embrace them.”

The “Letterman” Effect: Automation → Fewer Great TV Hosts

America’s longest-running late-night TV host,David Letterman, now retired and giving ZZ Top a run for their money when it comes to beards, was once a grocery bag boy in his home state of Indiana. As news crept out recently that Amazon is eying 2021 to roll-out up to 3,000 of its now-experimental cashier-less stores, your humble newsletter editor couldn’t help but wonder, where will the next Letterman come from? As we saw above, yeah, things change. But will the nation be ready for this by 2021? According to Bloomberg, the aggressive expansion could feature different formats and could possibly threaten convenience chains. “The challenge to Amazon’s plan is the high cost of opening each location. The original AmazonGo in downtown Seattle required more than $1 million in hardware alone, according to a person familiar with the matter.”

Remodeling a Big-Box Store? Don’t Forget the Little Things

Retail is changing. Malls and shopping centers are changing. They are changing because daring people are recognizing the trends and looking for new and creative ways to maintain a physical presence in a world that is increasingly becoming digital. Many are succeeding by thinking outside the box – or the footprint of their retail space. That’s according to Chuck Taylor of Englewood Construction, a national commercial contractor specializing in retail. He told the Chicago Daily Herald recently there are things that need to be considered, beyond apps and social media and other digital amenities, for those taking a big box space and converting it into something else. “We’ve worked with several retailers who are negotiating with current landlords to stay in the same location and remodel their store, but give back a portion of their footprint. Owners still need to engage an architect and also loop in the municipality to confirm adherence to egress and life safety requirements. An architect is also a good investment since the landlord will want an updated as-built drawing to use in marketing the modified property to an entirely new group of potential tenants looking for a smaller square footage range.”

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